Winter/Spring 2024 Race Preview

I've pretty much locked down early 2024 races for myself. The plan will be to continue to with longer road events. This went well in the fall and the next 12 weeks will follow a similar pattern with higher volume, longer road workouts on a consistent basis to try to get really strong. After a week of 3 mile runs (that's a week off in 2023/running every day), I took an easy week to get back into it and then a slightly higher week with a workout after that. What will follow the first week of January is some short rustbuster races just to push the body back into intense running, then committing fully to marathon training again with the goal race being the Los Angeles Marathon on March 17th. I felt the fall went pretty well culminating in running 1:10 for the half twice, many weeks over 80 and a few over 90s for the first time, four long runs over 20s, a debut marathon and ultimately keeping my volume and training pretty consistent. I am disappointed that I didn't run faster in Honolulu but the tropical heat was always going to be a wild card and I'm confident I gained a lot of strength over the full block that will benefit me in 2024. 

A key difference in training for Los Angeles versus Honolulu is amount of time to prepare. Honolulu I had a full 16 week block (excluding the last three weeks in RI- Blessing/Kerri/Doyle, for Los Angeles I'll only have 12 weeks to prepare (and technically that's 10 if only looking at full volume weeks). For Honolulu I was never rushed and had plenty of time to get in all my key workouts, long runs and even two half marathons whereas Los Angeles I'll have to be careful to make sure I don't miss a long run and I'll go in with considerably less volume under my belt. This sounds like a poor setup and while it'd be wiser to wait until I can get a full block, this will essentially be a home town big race and I probably won't race marathons in California after moving back to NE.  So I don't want to miss the Los Angeles marathon the year I'll be living in that area. While I don't feel as great about the training, the hope is that all the work I put in the fall will carry over somewhat and I'll be in similar shape to Honolulu by when race day comes. It should be an advantage that everything I'm doing for this upcoming block I did for the first time in the fall. Another big difference is that Honolulu was a flat marathon and Los Angeles is very hilly. This is something I'll have to figure out for training. Here are the races I'm doing up until Los Angeles. 

January 1st- Millenium Mile: Londonderry, NH

Like last year, I'll open up the year with a downhill road mile in NH. It was a fun event and easy decision to return. As both an opener and shorter event, the expectations will be pretty low. I'll be going in with considerably less running in my legs than last year so this is more a "for fun" type of race than anything serious. 

January 4th/5th- Indoor Track Double: New York, NY

This probably isn't the greatest training decision, but only being back in RI for a few weeks into January and running a March marathon meant no indoor track for 2024. I've run indoor pretty consistently every season since 2014 and wanted to get in at least a race. After spending a lot of time on the Boston tracks, it seemed nice to return to the Armory and get in a race at Ocean Breeze which I've wanted to race on for a long time. Like the mile, these will really be racing just for fun to get in my track fix for 2024 and reintroducing hard efforts. I'll be racing a 3K at the armory on the 4th and a mile at Ocean Breeze on the 5th. 

February 4th- Surf City 5K: Huntington Beach, CA

After two weeks back in SoCal, hopefully I'll be in good shape and will race a road 5K for the first time since April 2023. With a super fast and flat OAB course plus potentially good competition, I'd like to take a crack at sub-15:30 again. 

February 25th- Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon: Las Vegas, NV

After getting the bulk of my marathon training done, I'll hope to be in good shape for this one and take my fitness to Las Vegas. I won't have as much under my belt as did going into Berkeley but hopefully I can be similar shape. Unlike Berkeley, this course is pancake flat and should be a really good PR opportunity. I'd like to get sub 1:10 here if things go well. 

March 17th- Los Angeles Marathon: Los Angeles, CA

This will be the big goal for the winter/spring. Hopefully get really fit and hold things together much better in the second half than Honolulu. Course is pretty similar to Boston- point to point course that's pretty hilly and a net downhill with a lot of downhill early on. Decently competitive but nothing crazy, should be in top 30-40. 

I don't have anything locked in post-Los Angeles, but here are some likely events in that period:

April 7- Bakersfield 10K. Decent loop course, could use as a return to racing post L.A., but a maybe. 

April 13- Point Mugu Trail Race. Very hilly trail race nearby along the ocean, will likely race this one. 

April 28- El Segundo 5K. Reasonably close looped and flat course, could be a good opportunity. 

May 5- Orange County Half. Relatively close half marathon. Net downhill but not a huge drop, could be another opportunity to run fast and work off going into summer. 

TBD after that, I have a few events that are likely but mostly will make decisions later on.